"Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?"
"I'm going to see what section he was in," said Ron, who'd had enough of
working. He came back a minute later with a pile of books in his arms
and slammed them down on the table.
"Dragons!" he whispered. "Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons!
Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to
Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide."
"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever
met him, " said Harry.
"But it's against our laws," said Ron. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by
the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop
Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden -
anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns
Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania."
"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?" said Harry.
"Of course there are," said Ron. "Common Welsh Green and Hebridean
Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you.
Our kind have to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to
make them forget."
"So what on earths Hagrid up to?" said Hermione.
When they knocked on the door of the gamekeeper's hut an hour later,
they were surprised to see that all the curtains were closed. Hagrid
called "Who is it?" before he let them in, and then shut the door
quickly behind them.
It was stifling hot inside. Even though it was such a warm day, there
was a blazing fire in the grate. Hagrid made them tea and offered them
stoat sandwiches, which they refused.
"So -- yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?"
"Yes," said Harry. There was no point beating around the bush. "We were
wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Sorcerer's Stone
apart from Fluffy."